Defense looking to tackle biggest problem

THE FOLLOWING question was posed to Steve Spagnuolo: What would you have said before the season if someone told you after three games, your defense would be ranked dead-last in the league against the run?

“I’d probably say no comment because we have 13 more games to go, but I certainly wouldn’t have expected that,” Spagnuolo said.

His defense was supposed to be all-world this season, and it has been barely all right. Against the run, the Giants have been bad, al- lowing an NFL-high 153.3 yards per game after the Eagles — a mediocre running team — gashed them for 193 yards. Included in the groundgame mess was a shocking lack of tackling discipline and execution.

Spagnuolo knows where the problem resides.

“It has to get fixed from the inside out,” Spagnuolo said. “In other words, guys have to have the attitude to fix it, which I think they do. If we don’t get better at that, it’s not going to … all the other stuff is not going to matter. So we need to improve that.”

This is not supposed to happen, not with a skilled, veteran group of players who dared to consider themselves a top-five defense. Tackling was what the Giants did best in 2016.

“It’s very surprising,” said Damon Harrison, the best run-stopper on the defensive line. “Nobody saw that coming. But it’s all things that we can get corrected and get corrected fast. It’s not a matter of guys not being able to do it. It’s just actually doing it and doing it with some authority. I don’t think we’ve been doing that.”